The Price of Freedom
by Lila Mae
Summary: The war ended and the Light side won, but at what price? With so many friends dead, what do the survivors have left to live for? Harry’s come up with a desperate plan to start a new life. Will he and the others ever be able to find the peaceful life?


Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter… kinda wish I did… 'cause then Sirius would have lived and Umbridge would have been turned into a mouse and fed to Hedwig.

A/N: This is AU after the fifth book. There are elements mentioned in the sixth book, but I didn't follow the cannon version of events. This is made pretty evident by the third paragraph, but I figured I'd state the obvious. Any OOC actions, thoughts, etc. are, well... not. Keep in mind this happens after **_years_** of fighting in a war, so the characters are entitled to a bit of brooding and stuff.The first chapter is very dark and angsty, but I promise that things will eventually lighten up a bit.;)

Summary: The war ended and the Light side won, but at what price? With so many friends dead and gone, what do the survivors have left to live for? Harry's come up with a desperate plan to start a new life. Will he and the others be able to find the peaceful life they always wanted? Or will their journey drop them into the middle of another war?

* * *

Since his eleventh birthday Harry Potter's most desperate desire was to be normal. In the absence of 'normal' he'd be more than willing to settle for something around 'average' or even 'absolutely unremarkable'. Unfortunately, he'd been anything but normal since the fateful Halloween his parents died and the Dark Lord's body was destroyed.

It had taken _years_ of training, studying, fighting, living, and dying before he and the Order discovered a way to defeat Voldemort once and for all. The answer, ironically enough, was found in one of Salzar Slytherin's journals. Said journal had spent nearly nine hundred years shelved wrong and pushed to the back of the 'foot charms' section of the Hogwarts Library. They had been so excited about the discovery that no one even bothered to ask Colin Creevy what in the world he had been doing back there in the first place.

The war, like all others, had casualties. Cedric and Sirius's deaths were only the beginning. Men, women, and children were slaughtered in their own homes and in the streets. Nowhere was safe anymore except Hogwarts, and even that was questionable. Harry had lost count of the number of bodies he had helped to bury. With the death of each friend, a piece of him died with him or her.

Hagrid, bless his soul, died during Christmas break sixth year defending the Headmaster from Professor Snape. The gentle giant had fought fiercely and killed the Potions Master before falling from the tower after being hit with a Killing Curse from Draco Malfoy. Three years later Harry had taken great pleasure in feeding the aristocratic blonde to Hagrid's grieving friend Aragog.

After that Harry's training had started in earnest. Dumbledore worked with him for several hours everyday, and wrote out detailed instructions and translations of texts at night. If he hadn't been so stressed and overwhelmed, Harry might have noticed how weak and tired the Headmaster had become. As it was, he had blamed it on old age and the Hocrux, that the man had destroyed. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore died in his sleep five days before Harry and the gang was to graduate from Hogwarts. Sadly, it was the only death Harry had seen that was the result of natural causes. Dumbledore had been diagnosed with cancer.

Professor Flitwick, Madam Bones, Professor Sprout, and Mundugas Fletcher were compromised on an undercover mission. Tonks, Kingsley, and several other Aurors were sent as a rescue team. None returned. Their mutilated bodies were left at the front gates of Hogwarts. They were so mangled that they had to be identified by their dental records and residual magical signatures.

Harry and Ginny get married on her seventeenth birthday. The ceremony was small, and _should_ have been a secret. In retrospect Harry shouldn't have been surprised that Death Eaters came to ruin what should have been the happiest day of his life. He not only lost his new bride, but Mrs. Weasley, Charlie, and George as well. Mr. Weasley, Percy, and Fred went out on a suicide mission the next morning. The three of them single-handedly managed to blow up a camp of over seventy Death Eaters. Percy lingered in a coma for almost a week before finally succuming to his injuries.

Hermione and Ron were both killed in the same raid two months later. After Dumbledore's passing Harry had become the de-facto leader of the Order. He took his responsibilities _very_ seriously. Ron was his prized tactician and Hermione was his number one Researcher. The three of them were affectionately known as the 'Triumvirate of Power'. Even after the deaths of the others, at eighteen they were still convinced of their own immortality. Harry warned them that their association with him made them even more of a target than they would have already been. He told them to be extra cautious. They hadn't listened. They told him that they would be careful – he was worrying too much, and that everything would work out fine. _Worrying too much_! They went down into the Battle of Hogsmeade half-cocked with revenge in their eyes and tripped the trap. The explosion could be seen for miles, and the very foundations of the castle shook. Harry didn't even need to leave the Great Hall to know his best friends were dead. The cold and empty feeling inside told him that well enough.

At Harry's insistence Luna and Neville were apprenticed under Madam Pomphrey. Looking through piles of the rare books the Order had 'acquired' from the Death Eaters, the two of them found an ancient book of healing potions. It was an accident that they discovered the cure for lycanthropy, but it was a brief ray of Hope in Dark times and soon their healing skills grew to be legendary. That was fortunate, since Madam Pomphrey was killed in a building collapse and all the truly gifted Healers from St. Mugo's either fled, were recruited into the Death Eaters, or executed.

After the Hogsmeade memorial service everyone followed Harry's instructions to the letter. If he came to see someone before they were scheduled to leave on a mission and told them to bring an extra pair of warm socks, two lengths of rope, and another seven blocks of C-4 explosives, then that was exactly what they did. Harry was a natural born leader. His people would follow him into Hell itself if he asked it of them, and that's exactly what they did.

The Final Battle was as gruesome, long, and heart wrenching as everyone had feared it would be, but the Light side had prevailed. The battle was so horrible that no one really remembered the entire thing. Their minds blocked out bits and pieces to preserve their sanity. Even then, it was a close thing. The fighting lasted for four days, and afterwards the grass by the Forbidden Forest where it took place never lost its sick redish-brown color, and nothing new would grow there. Those of Harry's classmates that were left fought on one side or the other. Neville and Luna both started out behind the front lines, patching up their rag-tag Humpty Dumpties and sending them back out to fight. By the third day the Order was beginning to lose ground to the Death Eater's superior numbers. Voldemort did not bother to train his forces because he saw them as little more than cannon fodder. He had no ideals to uphold anymore. Pureblood superiority meant nothing to him. He only wanted to win, to crush Hope, Happiness, and Goodness in all its forms. The Dark Lord made stupid and risky moves. He was no longer thinking rationally, and it showed.

That was when Neville made his last stand. He knew that unless the enemies' numbers were significantly reduced the Order didn't have a chance in Hell of winning. He and Luna weren't just talented; they were both Born-Healers. People like them only came around two or three times a century. They had trained themselves to the point where they no longer needed their wands to perform healing charms. At touch of a hand was all they needed. A brush of the fingers across a sweaty brow could break a fever or reduce swelling. Neville just smiled sadly down at Luna before kissing her forehead and knocking her out. He shed his outer robes and ran headlong into battle. He ran into the largest clump of Death Eaters on the field and started tagging them as he passed. It took less than a second for the accomplished healer to give them enough of a jolt to stop their hearts, and thus their lives. There was a full thirty seconds of complete silence from both sides as they watched in horrified awe as Death Eater after Death Eater dropped like flies.

Harry's reaction came a split second before Voldemort's and by the time the monster had roared out the order to kill the Healer the Order was already covering Neville's desperate flight. No one was so much surprised at Neville's eventual downfall, but at the sheer number of those he sent to the hereafter before him. Two hundred and fifty-seven. And so the battle turned and Harry finally came face to face with the dreaded Dark Lord. There was no long-winded speeches or dramatic dueling. Voldemort opened his mouth to scream the Killing Curse when Harry hit him with a smoking pale pink potion. Several incomprehensible incantations later and he was gone. Those Death Eaters who tried to escape didn't get far because, Voldemort tried draining the life from his followers in an effort of self-preservation. Harry had expected this and had planned accordingly. None who bore the Dark Mark survived.

Harry hadn't even reached his twenty-fifth birthday and he was already finding strands of silver among his raven locks. Those left had not faired any better, not that there were many. Most families that opposed Voldemort left the country soon after the confirmation of his return. They slowly made their way back, but even then the British Wizarding population was decimated. Minerva McGonagall was made Headmistress of Hogwarts and new professors were brought in from all over the world. Of the original Order only a handful survived. Himself, Luna, Remus, Minerva, Bill, Fleur, Victor, Lavander and Cho. While Bill and Fleur were married to each other, the others had all lost their spouses or significant others.

* * *

The nine of them sat out on the pier on the lake drinking alcohol or pumpkin juice. The weather was beautiful for spring and it made them all feel that much more guilty for living. Remus's arm was still in a sling, and bruises were still fading from Bill's face. Minerva, Fleur and Lavender lay on an old blanket passing a bottle of wine back and forth between them. Victor floated lazily in the water staring at the sky. Luna and Cho had taken off their shoes and socks to dip their feet in the cold water. Harry sat alone nursing his way through a bottle of Firewhiskey. A lone tenacle from the Giant Squid came up to caress Luna's calf, "Neville and I were planning to get married just as soon as the war was over."

No one spoke. They already knew.

"If I had known he was going to run off like that…" Luna's voice was a harsh whisper. She had lost her silly wonderment long ago, "I never told him I was pregnant."

That made everyone look at her in shock, happiness, fear, and sadness. Except Harry, who looked of into the horizon with unseeing eyes, "He already knew."

Everyone's eyes went from the young woman to their careworn leader. Luna cleared her throat and crawled over to sit beside him, "He did?"

Harry nodded and took a long swallow from the half-empty bottle, "He asked me to make sure you and the baby would be safe and cared for if anything happened to him."

Luna leaned her head against his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "Thank you, Harry."

"Any time Luna."

"I have nothing left to live for here, Harry. Let's leave," Luna's statement came out of the blue, "Let's leave and never look back."

Harry turned to look her in the eye. He must have seen what he was looking for. "Where do you want to go Luna?" his question weighed heavily. The question was both one and many.

"Away," was her instant response, "Away from the ghosts of the past. I want a clean start – a new beginning."

A slow smile spread across his face taking off at least ten years, making him look the age he really was. Harry Potter had not smiled since the day he held the cooling body of Ginny Potter in his blood soaked arms. Something sparked back to life behind his empty emerald eyes, "In that case, I think I have a plan."

* * *

Oh, yes. If you is wanting more, then you is to be leaving reviews! ;) 


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